I love Kate Spicer’s description (in today’s Sunday Times) of festivals as “pop-up communities”. And I was intrigued to hear this week that ex VisitEnglander Stuart Barrow has a new play coming on at a pop-up theatre off Brick Lane – see pic.
Then there’s the pop-up tea boutique in Islington, catering to the latest tea-party craze. And the pop-up ‘anti-venue’ concept in the meetings industry: unusual, exclusive spaces, only available for a limited period.
It got me thinking about how well pop-ups suit the 2010 zeitgeist. There’s the ‘catch it while you can’ excitement – ideal for our ever-shorter-attention-span culture. There’s the creative use of empty or under-used space – just right for our recession-hit commercial property sector.
And there’s the way pop-ups play to contemporary ideas of blurred definitions – of refusing to be categorised. They suggest something free-spirited, innovative, creative and fun. Something that can’t be pinned down and put in a box. Which is a bit ironic,
when you think about it …